The Music of Hildegard of Bingen by Soprano Stella Horvath

To mark the last day of the Great Women of Faith exhibition, visitors to St Patrick's Cathedral will be treated to the sounds of 12th-century Rhineland mystic, poet, playwright, musician, visionary and scientist Hildegard of Bingen, sung by Melbourne-born soprano Stella Horvath.

Hildegard is famous for her musical compositions, which are still regularly played on classical radio stations around the world. Her collection of music and poetry is called the Symphonia Armonie Celestium Revelationum and consists of 77 songs for the Church’s liturgical year, as well as her musical drama Ordo Virtutum. Her compositions have a flowing and enchanting quality to them, reflective of the Benedictine spirituality in which she was immersed from a young age.

Hildegard wrote that ‘Musical harmony softens hard hearts, inducing in them the moisture of contrition and summoning the Holy Spirit.’ She also famously described creation in musical terms:

All of creation is a symphony of joy and jubilation. God has arranged all things in the world in consideration of everything else. Everything that is in the heavens, on the earth, under the earth, is penetrated with connectedness, is penetrated with relatedness.

About Stella Horvath

Stella Horvath is a Melbourne-born soprano currently studying at the University of Melbourne in her second year of a bachelor of classical voice degree. She has been in the church-choir scene since 2016. Stella’s interests include her operatic studies as well as her choral and early music commitments.